Lawmaker files bill to challenge ethics rules

AUSTIN - A West Texas legislator's lobby pheasant hunt gone afoul has prompted a Houston legislator to file a bill to allow public officials to solicit charitable contributions from people who are trying to influence public policy.

Swinford had bought the birds and reserved the hotel rooms for his annual lobby pheasant hunt to raise money for his political account. Then he discovered the hunt date was set for after the 30-day cutoff when legislators are prohibited from raising political money prior to a legislative session.

So Swinford tried to change the event into a fund-raiser for his local 4-H Club with his name on the invitation.

That's when Swinford discovered ethics commission opinions for 1992, 1993 and 2000 that say it is a violation of the state penal and lobby laws for a public official to solicit a charitable donation to be made in his own name.

No one was charged

"The only difference was my name was on the invitation. Otherwise, that 4-H Club has hunts all the time. The issue was my name being on the invitation was going to mess us up," Swinford said.

Swinford said he had the hunt, but no one was charged.

Nixon's bill says a charitable donation solicited by a public official would not be considered a political donation, a benefit to the official or "an expenditure made to influence" legislative or administrative action.

"If I say ... 'Give money to the Boy Scouts,' that could be an ethics violation. That's nuts. I can't put on an apron and sell pancakes at my church," Nixon said.

Unsolicited donations

However, the ethics opinion is not that simple.

Ethics Advisory Opinion 427 from 2003 says a public official may legally solicit contributions for a charity so long as the money goes directly to the charity and is not made in the official's name. The opinion also says an unsolicited donation may be made to a charity in an official's name.

The opinion said it is only when the official raises the money, controls the money or has the money donated in his or her name that state law is violated by becoming a benefit for the official.

Nixon said the opinion would halt Speaker Tom Craddick's annual golf tournament to raise money for children's charities. He said the tournament last year raised $150,000.

Nixon said a draft ethics commission opinion said the rule could only be determined on a case-by-case basis. He said that does not give enough guidance to lawmakers.

For donations of up to $500,000, sponsors would be able to spend time with DeLay and play golf with him. DeLay eventually canceled the event.

Suzy Woodford, executive director of Common Cause of Texas, said the ethics commission opinions on charitable solicitations were merely explaining long-standing state law banning lawmakers from taking honorariums. She said Nixon's bill is an example of legislators trying to loosen their own ethics rules.